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 Compared to patients who were inactive for the first 10 to 12 months
after their heart attack, patients who were active during that whole
time were 71 percent less likely to die during the four-year study,
researchers reported in the Journal of the American Heart
Association.
People who were inactive at first but who increased their activity
levels over time, meanwhile, were 59 percent less likely to die
during the study than their constantly sedentary counterparts, and
even people who reduced their activity levels but still got at least
a little exercise were 44 percent less likely to die.
Overall, the study involved 22,227 patients who were surveyed twice
about their activity levels: at 6 to 10 weeks after a heart attack,
and again 10 to 12 months afterward. After an average follow-up of
about four years, 1,087 people died.
Physical activity has long been linked to a lower risk of
cardiovascular disease and premature death after events like a heart
attack or stroke.
The current study, however, offers fresh evidence of the potential
to improve survival odds by exercising after a heart attack, or by
trying to keep up with some workouts even if a previous level of
exercise is difficult to maintain.
"If you have not been active before your (heart attack), don't
worry, start now, it will improve your health and prognosis," lead
study author Orjan Ekblom of the Swedish School of Sport and Health
Sciences in Stockholm said by email. "If you have been active before
your (heart attack) great, but keep it up."
"For individuals who cannot exercise it is important to underline
that exercise is only a limited part of physical activity," Ekblom
advised. Just moving more around the home, or taking slow walks, can
help, along with other things like reducing stress and avoiding
alcohol and tobacco.
It's possible that exercise benefits people after a heart attack in
many of the same ways it does before, said Claude Bouchard of the
Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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Among other things, exercise might help improve risk factors for
cardiovascular disease like obesity, high blood pressure, elevated
blood sugar, high cholesterol, excess liver fat, and chronic
inflammation, Bouchard, who wasn't involved in the study, said by
email.
Like other people, heart attack survivors should aim for about 150
minutes a week of moderate intensity activity, Bouchard said.
"Walking is the easiest form of activity to pursue this goal,"
Bouchard advised. "It has a very low risk of injury and allows for
easy quantification of the exercise dose."
The study wasn't a controlled experiment designed to prove whether
or how activity levels might directly influence mortality rates
after a heart attack.
Another limitation is that it only asked how many days each week
people got at least 30 minutes of physical activity; this doesn't
help assess which types of exercise, or how much, might be ideal.
"However, based on the available literature to date, it seems like
even low levels of physical activity even below the current
recommendations relate to improved survival," said Trine Moholdt of
the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
While patients should check with their physicians before starting a
new exercise routine, it's likely that there would be good options
for people at almost any fitness level, Moholdt, who wasn't involved
in the study, said by email.
"Exercise is safe and being sedentary is far more dangerous,"
Moholdt said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2FcOtug Journal of the American Heart
Association, online December 11, 2018.
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